Netflix's Yu Yu Hakusho Breaks Major Viewership Record

Yu Yu Hakusho's live-action series made its debut with Netflix in December, and the series is already breaking major viewership records with the streaming service in just its first two weeks! Live-action anime adaptations have been on a stride thanks to the successful debut of One Piece's live-action series earlier this Summer, and that put quite a bit on pressure on this series to stick the landing. It seems that success has also driven fans to check out the new Yu Yu Hakusho as soon as possible as fans have helped it to be the biggest debut of a Japanese series ever. 

Yu Yu Hakusho not only took the top spot in Netflix's Top 10 Non-English TV shows for the week of its debut with 7.7 million views, but according to Netflix it also "secured the second spot across both English and non-English categories, establishing it as the biggest debut of a Japanese series ever." The series also ranked in the Top 10 across 92 countries and regions worldwide with the likes of Japan, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and more. As of this writing, Yu Yu Hakusho also managed to keep its Number 1 spot in its second week with 6.2 million views and 36.1 million hours watched. 

Netflixシリーズ『幽☆遊☆白書』日本発のシリーズ作品で歴代最高となる快挙を達成👏

Netflix週間グローバルTOP10入り！
非英語シリーズ🏆初登場1位
全言語シリーズ🏆全世界2位

さらに、世界92の国・地域で今日のシリーズTOP10にランクイン！#幽遊白書 #YuYuHakusho pic.twitter.com/Cp9t4BpYYO

— Netflix Japan | ネットフリックス (@NetflixJP) December 20, 2023

What Is Yu Yu Hakusho? 

Directed by Sho Tsukikawa with Kazutaka Sakamoto as executive producer and Teru Morii as producer, Yu Yu Hakusho's live-action series stars Takumi Kitamura as Yusuke Urameshi, Shuhei Uesuhi as Kazama Kuwabara, Jun Shison as Kurama, and Kanata Hongo as Hiei. As for what to expect from the five episode live-action Yu Yu Hakusho series, Netflix begins to tease it as such, "The manga revolves around Yusuke Urameshi, a junior high school student who spends his days getting into fights and dies in an accident while trying to protect a young child."

The synopsis continues with, "As he grapples with the fact that he is looking down on his dead body, a woman named Botan, who calls herself a guide to the spirit world, relays to him the shocking truth: no one expected a delinquent like Yusuke to die performing an act of goodness, and there was no place for him in either heaven or hell. Thus, Yusuke is given a chance to be revived, and after passing his trial, he becomes an Underworld Detective. From there, Yusuke becomes entwined in a mystery that envelopes the human, demon and spirit worlds. The spectacular adventure of Yusuke will now become a live action series on Netflix."

How did you like Yu Yu Hakusho's live-action series on Netflix? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!